Today's Pluses

Kaiju is at ease in our home. We have only introduced him to the kitchen (and porch for 10 minutes) so far. And he seems pretty confident when he is there during his free time/play time. He plays with his toy(s), and sometimes gets so excited that we need to walk away to the next room, to calm him down.

We figured out that he is not very food motivated. He is very praise motivated, though, so we will use that in our training.

He has started chasing after a tennis ball, and then bringing it back closer to us, although he doesn't release it for us. It's pretty fun.

He goes #2 very regularly. Healthy looking. He eats very little, but we trust that he is eating as much as he needs to.

Although he cries every time we close the crate door, after a few minutes, he stops and calms down and goes to sleep. And the crying fit is getting shorter.

He met a friendly neighborhood lab outside, and although the encounter was very short, he was ok when the lab sniffed his little butt.

We saw Alex and Nicole today. We talked for a bit, and exchanged some similar stories about our puppies. We feel relieved to know that they are going through very similar joy and concerns.

Concerns

Kaiju is unable to focus on food if we go away from him. He cries and cries and forgets about food. We have been trying to go away to the next room, and monitor him via a Web camera from there. He cries for a while and then eats a little bit, and then cries some more. We hope he is going to be able to eat on his own without crying, soon.

Kaiju had peeing accidents three times so far in his crate. The last one was this morning when we went away for 2 hours (and he peed right before that), so we are a bit concerned. We have been trying to figure out an ideal time-table for his peeing and feeding, and got ourselves thoroughly confused and exhausted.

Kaiju has stopped wanting to go for a walk. We'll keep trying. He was able to walk for a long time two days ago, but last night, he stopped. He just sits down and won't move. We lured him with treats and praises this evening, and he managed to go around one block... Towards the end, he was trotting, so we hope this was just a weird phase and will go away. But for now, he does not even like to go outside so much.

We had guests over today, and he was kinda skittish. He would not leave Paul's side. He stays behind or on Paul's lap. He did not take treats from some of the adult guests, although he took it (although carefully) when a toddler gave one to him. It may have been that her little hand was less scary than adult-sized hands.

When he scratches the back of his ears around his collar, it often means he's thinking about the situation.

We need to find the motivator for him, good treats, toy, or play time, in order for us to train him well.

The rule of seven. One trick should be repeated by 7 different people for him to generalize the trick and let it sink in.

To let him get used to the leash, we can let him drag the leash around in the house under supervision. For this, we decided that we will do this during the play time in the kitchen.

If he does not eat/finish his food, take the bowl away after a set time, and try again at the next meal time. It's ok to leave the scene.

For house training, if he eliminates outside, he should get rewarded somehow, preferably with playtime. For the same reason, we should not play with him ahead of elimination. It should always come afterwards.

Always mark the good behavior with the same noise. The same goes for the bad behavior.

Dogs don't speak English, so train the dog with a gesture per trick, and when he gets it, associate the gesture with a command.

Those new humans didn't come and get me to go outside this morning. I couldn't hold it anymore. I waited for a bit, but I didn't hear any noise. This place was really quiet. I called them, but no answer so I wet my cushion. It was gross. I tried to sit on the other side of the spot. So gross.

After a little bit of difficulty getting his 1ST #2 on, Kaiju finally took care of business... and it made him a totally different dog. Any apprehension about play or boundaries went out the window! He was rolling on the floor with us, and having a great time!

Kaiju finally came home with us tonight! Very late. It was past midnight when we arrived back at home.

We spent about 4 hours at breeder (Charleen)'s, going over the paperwork, vaccination requirements, having beer and pizza, and shooting a whole lot of photos. The personality differences between the two boys were more apparent than they were a week ago. As suspected, we got the "thinker." I'm glad. I wanted him. The "pretty boy" brother of his was very jumpy and assertive and I would have a hard time handling him (he really was very cute though).

I drove, and Paul held the puppy on his lap. Kaiju was quiet and sat still, except for a few initial whimpers. Just when we said to each other how impressed we were by his quietness, he stood up on Paul's lap, made a quick whining noise, and shook his head really hard as if to shake off something that got stuck on his face. Then, I felt something wet land on my hands on the wheel, and heard Paul say "Errr... he just puked." "It's a lot... it's kinda gross"

sorry I puked on you...

We got off the highway at the next exit while Paul stayed very still so all the gooey stuff on his jacket would not slide down to the car seat. We pulled into a gas station and did a quick clean up. Too bad the blanket we took from the breeder was soiled. It was supposed to bring the scent of Kaiju's mom and brother, but we'd have to now wash it. Kaiju looked a little apologetic, but overall, he was either too sick to care or simply nonchalant about it. We couldn't tell. We don't know this boy well enough yet.

He ended up throwing up 3 times during the trip. Poor thing. And poor Paul, who developed the skill to catch the vomit perfectly with a towel by the end of the drive. Otherwise, Kaiju stayed calm and sleepy all the way home. Overall, we're pleased so far.